[Niall C]

I had an interesting round of golf on the Old Course at Moray GC, Lossiemouth last week. It was interesting for several reasons, firstly it was my first time playing it, secondly it seemed that every second minute we were being dive bombed by Tornados flying in or out of RAF Lossiemouth, and lastly I managed to get myself on BBC Scotland news both at 6.30pm and 10.30pm.

For those of you who don't know, RAF Lossiemouth is likely to be closed down. The Scottish Minister was up visiting it last week when I was playing which accounts for the busier than usual air traffic and the presence of the BBC. While my playing partners were interviewed I got filmed hitting a drive (for those interested I was the slightly less bad player of the two golfers shown).

The question asked by the guys from the BBC was what would the loss of RAF Lossiemouth mean for Lossie ? While undoubtedly it will be bad economically for the town, I wonder whether it could be a blessing for the golf club given the noise of the planes and ugliness of the landing lights which are positioned at various parts of the course. I really was struck by how good the course was and wondered whether it would be better appreciated now because of the lack of noise.

Anyone else played it and have any views ?

Niall

[Mike Leveille]

Niall:

I played Lossie for the first time last summer with a local friend who is a member.  The RAF was not flying that day, which pleased my friend greatly.  I have to say I was a bit disappointed to miss out on the novelty factor.  I suspect in the long run the absence of the RAF will be good news for the club.

Either way, I thought Lossie was a solid links course and great fun.  The 18th has to be one of the better finishing holes I have played in Scotland.  We played it into a strong wind that was also blowing a little towards the street and houses.  Not sure if that is the prevailing wind, but it is a lot of golf hole under those conditions.

Mike

[Brian_Ewen]

I saw the BBC piece Niall.

Played the course several times, and its very underrated (especially on here !)

But then its one of the many decent courses that the tourists fly past , in their haste to get from Cruden Bay To Castle Stuart or Dornoch .

[Melvyn Morrow]

Niall

June 5 this year not a plane in the air, sun was and its was great at Moray



]

[Brian_Ewen]

....... and maybe has my favourite finishing hole of any course I have played ?

[Melvyn Morrow]

Brian

One more for you



Melvyn

[Gary Daughters]

[Gary Daughters]

[Niall C]

Melvyn/Gary,

Thanks for the photos. Very well done as I don't know that its any easy course to photograph well, or maybe thats me showing up my lack of talent at photography.

Brian,

I'm totally with you on your comments on visitors to this country who miss out on a whole host of courses between CB and RD but then I think all of the courses in Moray tend to be under rated by golfers from elsewhere in this country as well. I knew that Old Moray was THE course up here and that it was good but I didn't expect it to be as good as it was, especially having played the New course a few times before. Also, I was ignorant that Elgin had a course never mind how good it is. Forres - managed to play there a couple of times over the last few weeks and had a blast (another Braid BTW, extension and re-routing followed by bunkering scheme 20 years later). A very underrated part of the country for golf IMHO.

Niall

[Niall C]

Niall:

I played Lossie for the first time last summer with a local friend who is a member.  The RAF was not flying that day, which pleased my friend greatly.  I have to say I was a bit disappointed to miss out on the novelty factor.  I suspect in the long run the absence of the RAF will be good news for the club.

Either way, I thought Lossie was a solid links course and great fun.  The 18th has to be one of the better finishing holes I have played in Scotland.  We played it into a strong wind that was also blowing a little towards the street and houses.  Not sure if that is the prevailing wind, but it is a lot of golf hole under those conditions.

Mike

Mike

I'm surprised that you managed to get a full round in without getting buzzed at least once by Tornados. Trust me, the novelty factor gets very old very quickly. These are the same planes that fly round Dornoch /Brora/Golspie area but at least there they do it at a decent altitude and therefore takes longer to become annoying. At Lossiemouth the runway is adjacent to the course and the planes go over it to land. Apparently it has been known that planes have been hit by skyed drives.

Unfortunately the club will likely lose a few members with the RAF moving away but hopefully visitor numbers might improve, I don't know , time will tell.

Niall

[Brian_Ewen]

Gary
Thanks for the photos.

Whats going on up the righthand side of 18 ?

Yes, I am well overdue a visit, but it looks different since I was last there .

[Bill_McBride]

Every Tuesday and Wednesday it gets a little noisy at Pensacola Country Club as these guys fly over at a couple of hundred feet!



They are based at NAS Pensacola, a mile away.  Sometimes when they fly home from a show on Sunday, they waggle their wings flying over the course if the wind id blowing from the west.   I haven't been to Lossiemouth, but those F-18A's are loud, I can imagine the noise!

Wish I knew how to make that photo smaller............

[Tony_Muldoon]

Niall, you’re not paranoid they are following you.







Thanks for the heads up. 


This probably isn’t the tread for it but this is in a Q&A with George Pepper on the front page of Shac’s blog.
“Between Malcolm and me, we’ve played just about all of the 84 links in Scotland, and if you want the truth, about 50 of them aren’t worth the trouble—they’re either very short or relatively undistinguished. But that doesn’t make them any less true links.”


I hate ranking lists but....

[Brian_Ewen]

[Gary Daughters]

Brian,

Those photos were taken five years ago.  The one of the 18th hole shows a back tee marker (yellow) in the foreground.  Down the right side.. that's a cliff sticking out.  A fade is the more prosaic play, but you can also visualize and actually play a draw over the ridge.

Gary

[Melvyn Morrow]

Lossiemouth, Moray GC, warm summers days, with the Links Lodge (http://www.linkslodge.co.uk/) just across the road. Good accommodation and great breakfasts, even the planes took the week-end off last June 2010.

Its one long stretch of coastline but has some wonderful golf courses starting in the North West with Brora , right along the Moray Firth passed Lossiemouth to Fraserburg then South down to Aberdeen.  Even more awaits if you have time to venture even further south. But don’t kill the holiday by staying close to Dornoch, there are many many more courses that will make your stay pleasurable (without low flying planes)

Melvyn

[Niall C]

Niall, you’re not paranoid they are following you.







Thanks for the heads up. 


This probably isn’t the tread for it but this is in a Q&A with George Pepper on the front page of Shac’s blog.
“Between Malcolm and me, we’ve played just about all of the 84 links in Scotland, and if you want the truth, about 50 of them aren’t worth the trouble—they’re either very short or relatively undistinguished. But that doesn’t make them any less true links.”


I hate ranking lists but....

Tony

Thanks for doing everyone a favour and not photographing my swing. To an extent I agree with the George Pepper comment that the architecture is simple (true minimilism ?) however even short courses can play long or tough when you're battling the elements. There's nothing more than a two or three club wind to make par meaningless.

There's also the joy of hitting off links turf and the roll of the ball.

Niall

[Brian_Ewen]

When speaking to a golfer that has never played Links Golf, I find its the hardest thing to explain, that feeling of a well struck ball off, of links turf.

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